Bad times make for good art. Meet some of the shining stars of Germany's cultural comeback
Posted Sunday, July 18, 2004; 8:34 BST MOVIES: The star of two of the most acclaimed German films in decades, DANIEL BRUHL has become the reluctant poster boy for his country's cinematic revival
First, he charmed the world — and broke German box office records — in Good Bye, Lenin! as the devoted son trying to hide Germany's reunification from his ailing mother by plying her with Spreewald pickles and other beloved products from the erstwhile G.D.R. Then he starred in The Edukators, a political thriller about three young idealists who kidnap a rich man to protest rampant capitalism — and it received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Cannes film festival in May. If Good Bye, Lenin! and The Edukators are signs of a German new wave, then actor Daniel Brühl is riding the crest.
With top billing in both films, Brühl, 26, has the kind of open, innocent face and understated, slightly geeky cool that audiences warm to — Tobey Maguire with an umlaut. He's become the It Boy of Germany's cinematic comeback, a role he seems uncomfortable playing. When asked about it, he quickly brushes the issue aside: "I try to keep that idea away from me, not take it too seriously." All the credit, he says, should go to the people behind the cameras. "German film is more successful now because young filmmakers have more guts and more self-confidence to tell stories about other aspects of German history, not just the Nazis," Brühl says. "And we've stopped making stupid comedies. It's not a German quality, being funny." Funnily enough, he's joking.
Despite his youth, Brühl has had almost two decades of acting experience. The Barcelona-born Berliner started in children's theater, moved on to radio plays when he was 8, and spent some time dubbing feature films (he also speaks Spanish and English) before appearing in his first movie at 16. Since then he's appeared in 21 TV and feature films and earned armloads of best actor awards.
And he's just getting started. At the end of the year, Brühl appears in the 1930s drama Ladies in Lavender alongside great dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Soon he'll be in Romania to shoot "a French film about World War I" and will make a movie with German actor-director Sebastian Schipper. He's also considering a project with his TV-director father. His main goal: to land a role that will erase the image from Good Bye, Lenin! that made him a star in the first place. "I'd like to be an asshole next," Brühl says. "To shock people. And stop them asking to take pictures of me holding jars of pickles." — By Jumana Farouky
They Don't Need Another Hero MUSIC: With their anticonsumerist anthems, WIR SIND HELDEN are leading Germany's indie music scene in its battle against the rise of cookie-cutter pop bands
Two years ago, Judith Holofernes, lead singer of Wir Sind Helden (We Are Heroes), was, in her own words, a "mousey, shy singer-songwriter." Today, she's a rock star, stepping onto a sun-drenched stage at the University of W ürzburg in a trendy blue denim dress draped over a pair of jeans, flailing away on a metallic red electric guitar with her stringy blond hair waving like a pennant in the wind. At the end of 2002, Holofernes was already popular as a folk-rock singer on the Berlin club scene. But that really wasn't her gig. She "always wanted a band," she says. "I wanted to play big, loud music." So when she eventually met up with three bandmates, they shrugged off serial rejections from the major record labels and decided to produce and market their own CD, which features a blend of new-wave pop, indie rock and social criticism. Now, wherever they go, they play to sold-out crowds like the one in Würzburg.
Wir Sind Helden chose their name in part as a reaction to what they saw as glorification of heroism in the wake of Sept. 11. "We're more like antiheroes and wanted to redefine the term," says Holofernes. The band's first song, an anticonsumerist anthem called Guten Tag (Good Day), took off after popular Berlin youth stations like Radio 1 played it so often that it hit No. 6 on the German pop charts. In the song, Holofernes describes how modern society forces people to trade their authenticity for media-dictated lifestyles. "So many of my friends are unhappy because they can't achieve all these things ... suggested by the media and advertising," she says. Holofernes' rebellion against mass consumerism and designer lifestyles struck a chord with her generation. "It's a critique that attracts young people who are tired of being told what they have to wear and how they have to look to be hip," says Albert Koch, a critic with Musikexpress, one of Germany's leading music magazines.
Holofernes says it's Wir Sind Helden's authenticity that appeals to fans. Facing new online-distribution models and threats from piracy, the record industry is struggling to stay profitable, feverishly cranking out one canned act after another in search of the next big thing. That leaves little room to experiment with homegrown bands like the Heroes, but fuels an underground music culture that lets such bands find their own way. "There's a whole new independent culture that's growing because the record labels are going under at such a rapid pace," she says. Holofernes is a new kind of protest singer, a small authentic voice shouting in the pop music wilderness — and a lot of German listeners like what they hear. — By William Boston.
Auf Wiedersehen, It's Been Good to Know You [Mar. 24, 2003]
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The Year of The Nuke A rundown of the world's nuclear powerhouses, and what to expect in the coming months
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